As we look at how software will be evolving, traditional PC applications and mobile apps have some substantial differences, key among them the depth and flexibility traditional applications offer that are often an anathema to mobile users.

Samsung's fourth quarter preliminary sales show the mobile unit may be improving, but the company will need to provide applications with real Internet of things intelligence if it wants to smooth out the feast or famine hardware business.

Yahoo's mobile apps are now material to the company and on a $1.2 billion annual run rate. Google dances around the mobile monetization topic even as Facebook can't shut up about its small screen plans.

The self-described 'productivity and platforms' company is championing this week some cross-divisional projects meant to show how enterprise and consumer tech can be combined to create new kinds of apps and services.